Not trying to be mysterious. Just elusive. My holiday vacation has started and I am putting our fun and inspiring series, "Read My Writing," on hold until the New Year. I hope you all are OK with that.
When we read courageous pieces our hearts are stirred. Sometimes we are compelled to respond. This woman was. So our featured piece is her response to our post last week.
Prayer for Those Faraway
by Grace @ Sacred Space
I've been reading blogs this morning from sisters around the world that I am virtually connected to through Women of the Harvest . Real women with messy lives living in challenging circumstances. Many of us glamorize missionaries, or think that they are somehow more spiritual than the rest of us, that they've been given extra measures of strength to live in difficult circumstances. Not true. I so admire these women and families who have followed the Shepherd to the field where He leads them. And, I pray that all of us will listen to the leading of the Shepherd in our own lives and that during this Christmas season our feet will bring good news of peace to a broken, fearful world.
"Dear Jesus, I abide with you this morning for my sisters around the world who have left homes, family, familiarity and comfort to take your message of salvation to your children. It's December Lord, and good or bad, we all have expectations of what this month should bring.
I pray for those far from families they love and long to be with, comfort them Dear Comforter. Give them joy like Peter knew...beyond expression!
I pray for those who are lonely and disillusioned, strengthen them Lord. with the strength you gave David when he was in a foreign land feeling so alone.
I pray for those whose marriages are being tested beyond what they think they can handle due to internal and external pressures inherent in marriage, but exacerbated in foreign cultures; give them patience and endurance as they hope in Your ability to give them wisdom and discernment.
I pray for mommies who are trying to love, discipline and educate their children. That is a challenge in 'normal' life, but even greater on different soil.
Give us all sensitive ears to your still, quiet voice as You guide us each moment to the path of life, the path of peace, the path of restoration every moment. Bless my precious sisters, Your chosen daughters, abundantly this Christmas Lord. Lift their heads to You and not to people near or far that they feel could meet some need they have. Remind them of Your lavish love, Your deep delight in them, and let them hear Your voice singing over them, rejoicing that they are Yours. Hold them close. In Your tender mercy, amen."
Seriously?! This is 2011 for goodness sake.
How is it possible for Christians to act this way?
Stella's father had this to say about the decision of the church:
"It sure ain't Christian it ain't nothing but the old devil working"
Tom and I married on December 13, 1981.
We faced this type of opposition back then. Twenty nine years ago we went shopping at a mall in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A young blonde salesgirl asked Tom if she could help him with a pair of shoes. After getting him settled she asked if she could help me as I wandered around looking for another pair for Tom to try on. When I said "that's okay... we're together" she went into the stockroom and didn't come back out.
We were refused service at a restaurant in Missouri. In Kansas, back in 1985, when our first child was stillborn someone asked our pastor if it was because we were being punished by God for being a biracial couple. We moved to California in 1988 and left all of that behind. There we found more couples like us and our children grew up feeling they were part of a normal typical family.
Spencer and Nathan
When our oldest, on the right, was asked at age 5 by a neighborhood kid why his mom was black he quickly answered "because God made her that way!"
I am shocked by this church's stance. Outraged. Bitterly disappointed. Maybe these people have not read their Bibles. Maybe they don't know that Moses was married to a Cushite (Ethiopian)? Surely their Bibles include the book of Numbers. Maybe they just haven't read chapter twelve?
My prayer is that Stella and Ticha can find a more loving congregation to be a part of. I pray that they know that not all Christians think this way. I pray that they will have a long and loving relationship and that this bigotry does not stand in the way of that. And I pray that when they are counting down the days until their 30th anniversary this will be just a dim memory.
